British psychiatrist John Bowlby revolutionized our understanding of human development by scientifically demonstrating that the nature of our early bonds with our parents plays a crucial role throughout our lives. When parents provide a secure emotional base, encouraging their children to seek autonomy while giving them support and encouragement, children grow up psychologically stable and able to make the most of life's opportunities. In this book, Bowlby elaborates these ideas and offers further evidence of the ways in which strong emotional ties promote mental health. -- from Publisher description.